AHCI RESEARCH GROUP
Publications
Papers published in international journals,
proceedings of conferences, workshops and books.
OUR RESEARCH
Scientific Publications
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You can expand the Abstract, Links and BibTex record for each paper.
2019
Augello, Agnese; Infantino, Ignazio; Maniscalco, Umberto; Pilato, Giovanni; Vella, Filippo
Introducing NarRob, a Robotic Storyteller Proceedings Article
In: Gentile, M; Allegra, M; Sobke, H (Ed.): GAMES AND LEARNING ALLIANCE, GALA 2018, pp. 387–396, SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND, 2019, ISBN: 978-3-030-11548-7 978-3-030-11547-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Bullying, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Education, Robotics, Social Practices, Storytelling Robots
@inproceedings{augelloIntroducingNarRobRobotic2019,
title = {Introducing NarRob, a Robotic Storyteller},
author = { Agnese Augello and Ignazio Infantino and Umberto Maniscalco and Giovanni Pilato and Filippo Vella},
editor = { M Gentile and M Allegra and H Sobke},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-11548-7_36},
isbn = {978-3-030-11548-7 978-3-030-11547-0},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
booktitle = {GAMES AND LEARNING ALLIANCE, GALA 2018},
volume = {11385},
pages = {387--396},
publisher = {SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG},
address = {GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND},
series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
abstract = {In this work we introduce NarRob, a robot able to engage in conversations and tell stories, by accompanying the speech with proper gestures. We discuss about the main components of the robot's architecture, and some possible education experiments that we are planning to carry out in real scholastic contexts.},
keywords = {Bullying, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Education, Robotics, Social Practices, Storytelling Robots},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
In this work we introduce NarRob, a robot able to engage in conversations and tell stories, by accompanying the speech with proper gestures. We discuss about the main components of the robot's architecture, and some possible education experiments that we are planning to carry out in real scholastic contexts.
2018
Augello, Agnese; Gentile, Manuel; Dignum, Frank
An Overview of Open-Source Chatbots Social Skills Proceedings Article
In: Diplaris, S; Satsiou, A; Folstad, A; Vafopoulos, M; Vilarinho, T (Ed.): INTERNET SCIENCE, INSCI 2017, pp. 236–248, SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND, 2018, ISBN: 978-3-319-77547-0 978-3-319-77546-3.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Social Practices
@inproceedings{augelloOverviewOpenSourceChatbots2018,
title = {An Overview of Open-Source Chatbots Social Skills},
author = { Agnese Augello and Manuel Gentile and Frank Dignum},
editor = { S Diplaris and A Satsiou and A Folstad and M Vafopoulos and T Vilarinho},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-77547-0_18},
isbn = {978-3-319-77547-0 978-3-319-77546-3},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
booktitle = {INTERNET SCIENCE, INSCI 2017},
volume = {10750},
pages = {236--248},
publisher = {SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG},
address = {GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND},
series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
abstract = {This paper aims to analyze and compare some of the most known open source chatbot technologies focusing on their potential to model a conversational agent able to show a form of ``social intelligence''. The main features and drawbacks of each system will be examined. Then, we will discuss their flexibility to produce more realistic social conversational scenarios adopting as the reference the social practice theory.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Social Practices},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This paper aims to analyze and compare some of the most known open source chatbot technologies focusing on their potential to model a conversational agent able to show a form of ``social intelligence''. The main features and drawbacks of each system will be examined. Then, we will discuss their flexibility to produce more realistic social conversational scenarios adopting as the reference the social practice theory.
Messina, Antonio; Augello, Agnese; Pilato, Giovanni; Rizzo, Riccardo
BioGraphBot: A Conversational Assistant for Bioinformatics Graph Databases Proceedings Article
In: Barolli, L; Enokido, T (Ed.): INNOVATIVE MOBILE AND INTERNET SERVICES IN UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING, IMIS-2017, pp. 135–146, SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND, 2018, ISBN: 978-3-319-61542-4 978-3-319-61541-7.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Biomedical, Chatbots, Gremlin, Human computer interaction
@inproceedings{messinaBioGraphBotConversationalAssistant2018,
title = {BioGraphBot: A Conversational Assistant for Bioinformatics Graph Databases},
author = { Antonio Messina and Agnese Augello and Giovanni Pilato and Riccardo Rizzo},
editor = { L Barolli and T Enokido},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-61542-4_12},
isbn = {978-3-319-61542-4 978-3-319-61541-7},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
booktitle = {INNOVATIVE MOBILE AND INTERNET SERVICES IN UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING, IMIS-2017},
volume = {612},
pages = {135--146},
publisher = {SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG},
address = {GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND},
series = {Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing},
abstract = {Chatbots technology allows to easily add a conversational interface to a large set of applications. In this paper, we show a conversational agent based on ALICE framework aimed at playing the role of interface between human users and a bioinformatics graph database. The system has been embedded into the web frontend of BioGraphDB, a publicly available resource that uses Gremlin as the primary query language. To be successfully exploited, domain experts, such as biologists and bioinformaticians, should also have familiarity with that query language. The use of a chatbot allows translating queries expressed in natural language to queries expressed in Gremlin, simplifying the interaction with BioGraphDB.},
keywords = {Biomedical, Chatbots, Gremlin, Human computer interaction},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Chatbots technology allows to easily add a conversational interface to a large set of applications. In this paper, we show a conversational agent based on ALICE framework aimed at playing the role of interface between human users and a bioinformatics graph database. The system has been embedded into the web frontend of BioGraphDB, a publicly available resource that uses Gremlin as the primary query language. To be successfully exploited, domain experts, such as biologists and bioinformaticians, should also have familiarity with that query language. The use of a chatbot allows translating queries expressed in natural language to queries expressed in Gremlin, simplifying the interaction with BioGraphDB.
2016
Augello, Agnese; Gentile, Manuel; Weideveld, Lucas; Dignum, Frank
Dialogues as Social Practices for Serious Games Journal Article
In: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, vol. 285, pp. 1732–1733, 2016, ISSN: 09226389.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Gamification, Serious game, Social Practices
@article{augelloDialoguesSocialPractices2016,
title = {Dialogues as Social Practices for Serious Games},
author = { Agnese Augello and Manuel Gentile and Lucas Weideveld and Frank Dignum},
editor = { Dignum F. Hullermeier E. Bouquet P. Dignum V. Fox M. van Harmelen F. Kaminka G.A.},
doi = {10.3233/978-1-61499-672-9-1732},
issn = {09226389},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications},
volume = {285},
pages = {1732--1733},
abstract = {The paper describes an architecture for a social conversational agent. The aim is to use the agent in a serious game to improve the social and communicative skills of the players, showing the social effects of conversational choices on the emotions and behavioural changes of the interlocutors.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Gamification, Serious game, Social Practices},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The paper describes an architecture for a social conversational agent. The aim is to use the agent in a serious game to improve the social and communicative skills of the players, showing the social effects of conversational choices on the emotions and behavioural changes of the interlocutors.
Augello, Agnese; Gentile, Manuel; Weideveld, Lucas; Dignum, Frank
A Model of a Social Chatbot Proceedings Article
In: DePietro, G; Gallo, Luigi; Howlett, Robert J.; Jain, Lakhmi C. (Ed.): INTELLIGENT INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS AND SERVICES 2016, pp. 637–647, SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND, 2016, ISBN: 978-3-319-39345-2 978-3-319-39344-5.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Serious game, Social Practices
@inproceedings{augelloModelSocialChatbot2016,
title = {A Model of a Social Chatbot},
author = { Agnese Augello and Manuel Gentile and Lucas Weideveld and Frank Dignum},
editor = { G DePietro and Luigi Gallo and Robert J. Howlett and Lakhmi C. Jain},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-39345-2_57},
isbn = {978-3-319-39345-2 978-3-319-39344-5},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
booktitle = {INTELLIGENT INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS AND SERVICES 2016},
volume = {55},
pages = {637--647},
publisher = {SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG},
address = {GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND},
series = {Smart Innovation Systems and Technologies},
abstract = {Traditional chatbots lack the capability to correctly manage conversations according to the social context. However a dialogue is a joint activity that must consider both individual and social processes. In this work we propose a model of a social chatbot able to choose the most suitable dialogue plans according to what in sociological literature is called a ``social practice''. The proposed model is discussed considering a case study of a work in progress aimed at the development of a serious game for communicative skills learning.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Serious game, Social Practices},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Traditional chatbots lack the capability to correctly manage conversations according to the social context. However a dialogue is a joint activity that must consider both individual and social processes. In this work we propose a model of a social chatbot able to choose the most suitable dialogue plans according to what in sociological literature is called a ``social practice''. The proposed model is discussed considering a case study of a work in progress aimed at the development of a serious game for communicative skills learning.
Augello, Agnese; Gentile, Manuel; Dignum, Frank
Social Practices for Social Driven Conversations in Serious Games Journal Article
In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 9599, pp. 100–110, 2016, ISSN: 03029743.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Education, Serious game, Social Practices
@article{augelloSocialPracticesSocial2016,
title = {Social Practices for Social Driven Conversations in Serious Games},
author = { Agnese Augello and Manuel Gentile and Frank Dignum},
editor = { de Gloria A. Veltkamp R.},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-40216-1_11},
issn = {03029743},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)},
volume = {9599},
pages = {100--110},
abstract = {This paper describes the model of social practice as a theoretical framework to manage conversation with the specific goal of training physicians in communicative skills. To this aim, the domain reasoner that manages the conversation in the Communicate! [1] serious game is taken as a basis. Because the choice of a specific Social Practice to follow in a situation is non-trivial we use a probabilistic model for the selection of social practices as a step toward the implementation of an agent architecture compliant with the social practice model. textcopyright Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Education, Serious game, Social Practices},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This paper describes the model of social practice as a theoretical framework to manage conversation with the specific goal of training physicians in communicative skills. To this aim, the domain reasoner that manages the conversation in the Communicate! [1] serious game is taken as a basis. Because the choice of a specific Social Practice to follow in a situation is non-trivial we use a probabilistic model for the selection of social practices as a step toward the implementation of an agent architecture compliant with the social practice model. textcopyright Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
2014
Augello, Agnese; Pilato, Giovanni; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore
Chatbots as Interface to Ontologies Journal Article
In: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 260, pp. 285–299, 2014, ISSN: 21945357.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Knowledge Representation, Natural Language Processing, Ontologies
@article{augelloChatbotsInterfaceOntologies2014,
title = {Chatbots as Interface to Ontologies},
author = { Agnese Augello and Giovanni Pilato and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-03992-3_20},
issn = {21945357},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
journal = {Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing},
volume = {260},
pages = {285--299},
abstract = {Chatbots are simple conversational agents using 'pattern matching rules' to carry out the dialogue with the user and various expedients to improve their credibility. However, the rules on which they are based on are too restrictive and their language understanding capability is very limited. Nevertheless chatbots are widespread in several applications, especially to provide information to users in a new and enjoyable way. In this chapter we describe different chatbot architectures, exploiting the use of ontologies in order to create clever information suppliers overcoming the main limits of chatbots: The knowledge base building and the rigidness of the dialogue mechanism. textcopyright Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Knowledge Representation, Natural Language Processing, Ontologies},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Chatbots are simple conversational agents using 'pattern matching rules' to carry out the dialogue with the user and various expedients to improve their credibility. However, the rules on which they are based on are too restrictive and their language understanding capability is very limited. Nevertheless chatbots are widespread in several applications, especially to provide information to users in a new and enjoyable way. In this chapter we describe different chatbot architectures, exploiting the use of ontologies in order to create clever information suppliers overcoming the main limits of chatbots: The knowledge base building and the rigidness of the dialogue mechanism. textcopyright Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.
Augello, Agnese; Infantino, Ignazio; Pilato, Giovanni; Rizzo, Riccardo; Vella, Filippo
Robotic Creativity Driven by Motivation and Semantic Analysis Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings - 2014 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC 2014, pp. 285–289, IEEE Computer Society, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-4799-4002-8.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Cognitive Architectures, Computational Creativity, Creative Agents, Motivation, Natural Language Processing, PSI, Semantic Computing, Social Robots
@inproceedings{augelloRoboticCreativityDriven2014,
title = {Robotic Creativity Driven by Motivation and Semantic Analysis},
author = { Agnese Augello and Ignazio Infantino and Giovanni Pilato and Riccardo Rizzo and Filippo Vella},
doi = {10.1109/ICSC.2014.58},
isbn = {978-1-4799-4002-8},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings - 2014 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC 2014},
pages = {285--289},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
abstract = {The paper proposes a system architecture for artificial creativity that enables a robot to perform portraits. The proposed cognitive architecture is inspired by the PSI model, and it requires that the motivation of the robot in the execution of its tasks is influenced by urges. Such parameters depend on both internal and external evaluation mechanisms. The system is a premise for the development of an artificial artist able to develop a personality and a behavior that depends on its experience of successes and failures (competence), and the availability of different painting techniques (certainty). The creative execution is driven by the motivation arising from the urges, and the perception of the work being executed or performed. The external evaluation is obtained by analyzing the opinions expressed in natural language from people watching the realized portrait. textcopyright 2014 IEEE.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Cognitive Architectures, Computational Creativity, Creative Agents, Motivation, Natural Language Processing, PSI, Semantic Computing, Social Robots},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The paper proposes a system architecture for artificial creativity that enables a robot to perform portraits. The proposed cognitive architecture is inspired by the PSI model, and it requires that the motivation of the robot in the execution of its tasks is influenced by urges. Such parameters depend on both internal and external evaluation mechanisms. The system is a premise for the development of an artificial artist able to develop a personality and a behavior that depends on its experience of successes and failures (competence), and the availability of different painting techniques (certainty). The creative execution is driven by the motivation arising from the urges, and the perception of the work being executed or performed. The external evaluation is obtained by analyzing the opinions expressed in natural language from people watching the realized portrait. textcopyright 2014 IEEE.
2013
Augello, Agnese; Gaglio, Salvatore; Pilato, Giovanni; Vassallo, Giorgio
Clifford Rotors for Conceptual Representation in Chatbots Journal Article
In: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol. 196 AISC, pp. 369–370, 2013, ISSN: 21945357.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Clifford algebra, Conceptual Spaces, Geometric algebra, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Computing
@article{augelloCliffordRotorsConceptual2013,
title = {Clifford Rotors for Conceptual Representation in Chatbots},
author = { Agnese Augello and Salvatore Gaglio and Giovanni Pilato and Giorgio Vassallo},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-34274-5_64},
issn = {21945357},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
journal = {Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing},
volume = {196 AISC},
pages = {369--370},
abstract = {In this abstract we introduce an unsupervised sub-symbolic natural language sentences encoding procedure aimed at catching and representing into a Chatbot Knowledge Base (KB) the concepts expressed by an user interacting with a robot. The chatbot KB is coded in a conceptual space induced from the application of the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) paradigm on a corpus of documents. LSA has the effect of decomposing the original relationships between elements into linearly-independent vectors. Each basis vector can be considered therefore as a "conceptual coordinate", which can be tagged by the words which better characterize it. This tagging is obtained by performing a (TF-IDF)-like weighting schema [3], that we call TW-ICW (term weight-inverse conceptual coordinate weight), to weigh the relevance of each term on each conceptual coordinate. textcopyright 2013 Springer-Verlag.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Clifford algebra, Conceptual Spaces, Geometric algebra, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Computing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this abstract we introduce an unsupervised sub-symbolic natural language sentences encoding procedure aimed at catching and representing into a Chatbot Knowledge Base (KB) the concepts expressed by an user interacting with a robot. The chatbot KB is coded in a conceptual space induced from the application of the Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) paradigm on a corpus of documents. LSA has the effect of decomposing the original relationships between elements into linearly-independent vectors. Each basis vector can be considered therefore as a "conceptual coordinate", which can be tagged by the words which better characterize it. This tagging is obtained by performing a (TF-IDF)-like weighting schema [3], that we call TW-ICW (term weight-inverse conceptual coordinate weight), to weigh the relevance of each term on each conceptual coordinate. textcopyright 2013 Springer-Verlag.
2011
Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Gaglio, Salvatore
A Modular Architecture for Adaptive ChatBots Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings - 5th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC 2011, pp. 177–180, 2011, ISBN: 978-0-7695-4492-2.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Intelligent Agents, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Computing
@inproceedings{pilatoModularArchitectureAdaptive2011,
title = {A Modular Architecture for Adaptive ChatBots},
author = { Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1109/ICSC.2011.68},
isbn = {978-0-7695-4492-2},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings - 5th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing, ICSC 2011},
pages = {177--180},
abstract = {We illustrate an architecture for a conversational agent based on a modular knowledge representation. This solution provides intelligent conversational agents with a dynamic and flexible behavior. The modularity of the architecture allows a concurrent and synergic use of different techniques, making it possible to use the most adequate methodology for the management of a specific characteristic of the domain, of the dialogue, or of the user behavior. We show the implementation of a proof-of-concept prototype: a set of modules exploiting different knowledge representation techniques and capable to differently manage conversation features has been developed. Each module is automatically triggered through a component, named corpus callosum, whose task is to choose, time by time, the most adequate chatbot knowledge section to activate. textcopyright 2011 IEEE.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Intelligent Agents, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Computing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
We illustrate an architecture for a conversational agent based on a modular knowledge representation. This solution provides intelligent conversational agents with a dynamic and flexible behavior. The modularity of the architecture allows a concurrent and synergic use of different techniques, making it possible to use the most adequate methodology for the management of a specific characteristic of the domain, of the dialogue, or of the user behavior. We show the implementation of a proof-of-concept prototype: a set of modules exploiting different knowledge representation techniques and capable to differently manage conversation features has been developed. Each module is automatically triggered through a component, named corpus callosum, whose task is to choose, time by time, the most adequate chatbot knowledge section to activate. textcopyright 2011 IEEE.
Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Gaglio, Salvatore
Modular Knowledge Representation in Advisor Agents for Situation Awareness Journal Article
In: International Journal of Semantic Computing, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 33–53, 2011, ISSN: 1793351X.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Context awareness, Conversational Agents, Decision Support Systems, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Computing
@article{pilatoModularKnowledgeRepresentation2011,
title = {Modular Knowledge Representation in Advisor Agents for Situation Awareness},
author = { Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1142/S1793351X11001158},
issn = {1793351X},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
journal = {International Journal of Semantic Computing},
volume = {5},
number = {1},
pages = {33--53},
abstract = {A modular knowledge representation framework for conversational agents is presented. The approach has been realized to suit the situation awareness paradigm. The modularity of the framework makes possible the composition of specific modules that deal with particular features, simplifying both the chatbot design process and its smartness. As a proof of concepts we have developed a modular, situation awareness oriented, KB for a conversational agent, which plays the role of an advisor aimed at helping a user to be in charge of a virtual town, inspired to the SimCity series game. The agent makes an extensive use of semantic computing techniques and is able to perceive, comprehend and project consequences of actions in order to handle strategic decision under uncertainty conditions. textcopyright 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Context awareness, Conversational Agents, Decision Support Systems, Knowledge Representation, Semantic Computing},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
A modular knowledge representation framework for conversational agents is presented. The approach has been realized to suit the situation awareness paradigm. The modularity of the framework makes possible the composition of specific modules that deal with particular features, simplifying both the chatbot design process and its smartness. As a proof of concepts we have developed a modular, situation awareness oriented, KB for a conversational agent, which plays the role of an advisor aimed at helping a user to be in charge of a virtual town, inspired to the SimCity series game. The agent makes an extensive use of semantic computing techniques and is able to perceive, comprehend and project consequences of actions in order to handle strategic decision under uncertainty conditions. textcopyright 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.
2010
Augello, Agnese; Pilato, Giovanni; Gaglio, Salvatore
Intelligent Advisor Agents in Distributed Environments Journal Article
In: Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol. 324, pp. 109–124, 2010, ISSN: 1860949X.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Decision Support Systems, Intelligent Advisors Systems
@article{augelloIntelligentAdvisorAgents2010,
title = {Intelligent Advisor Agents in Distributed Environments},
author = { Agnese Augello and Giovanni Pilato and Salvatore Gaglio},
editor = { Soro A},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-16089-9_7},
issn = {1860949X},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-01-01},
journal = {Studies in Computational Intelligence},
volume = {324},
pages = {109--124},
abstract = {The chapter presents a Distributed Expert System based on a multi-agent-architecture. The system is composed of a community of intelligent conversational agents playing the role of specialized advisors for the government of a virtual town, inspired to the SimCity game. The agents are capable to handle strategic decision under uncertainty conditions. They interact in natural language with their owners, obtain information on the current status of the town and give suggestions about the best strategies to apply in order to govern the town. textcopyright 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Decision Support Systems, Intelligent Advisors Systems},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The chapter presents a Distributed Expert System based on a multi-agent-architecture. The system is composed of a community of intelligent conversational agents playing the role of specialized advisors for the government of a virtual town, inspired to the SimCity game. The agents are capable to handle strategic decision under uncertainty conditions. They interact in natural language with their owners, obtain information on the current status of the town and give suggestions about the best strategies to apply in order to govern the town. textcopyright 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Vassallo, Giorgio; Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Gaglio, Salvatore
Phase Coherence in Conceptual Spaces for Conversational Agents Book
John Wiley and Sons, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-46495-3.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Conversational Agents
@book{vassalloPhaseCoherenceConceptual2010,
title = {Phase Coherence in Conceptual Spaces for Conversational Agents},
author = { Giorgio Vassallo and Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1002/9780470588222.ch18},
isbn = {978-0-470-46495-3},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-01-01},
publisher = {John Wiley and Sons},
keywords = {Chatbots, Conversational Agents},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
2009
Augello, Agnese; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore; Pilato, Giovanni
A Semantic Layer on Semi-Structured Data Sources for Intuitive Chatbots Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems, CISIS 2009, pp. 760–765, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7695-3575-3.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Knowledge Representation, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Computing, Semantic Spaces
@inproceedings{augelloSemanticLayerSemistructured2009,
title = {A Semantic Layer on Semi-Structured Data Sources for Intuitive Chatbots},
author = { Agnese Augello and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio and Giovanni Pilato},
doi = {10.1109/CISIS.2009.165},
isbn = {978-0-7695-3575-3},
year = {2009},
date = {2009-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems, CISIS 2009},
pages = {760--765},
abstract = {The main limits of chatbot technology are related to the building of their knowledge representation and to their rigid information retrieval and dialogue capabilities, usually based on simple "pattern matching rules". The analysis of distributional properties of words in a texts corpus allows the creation of semantic spaces where represent and compare natural language elements. This space can be interpreted as a "conceptual" space where the axes represent the latent primitive concepts of the analyzed corpus. The presented work aims at exploiting the properties of a data-driven semantic/conceptual space built using semistructured data sources freely available on the web, like Wikipedia. This coding is equivalent to adding, into the Wikipedia graph, a conceptual similarity relationship layer. The chatbot can exploit this layer in order to simulate an "intuitive" behavior, attempting to retrieve semantic relations between Wikipedia resources also through associative sub-symbolic paths. textcopyright 2009 IEEE.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Knowledge Representation, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Computing, Semantic Spaces},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The main limits of chatbot technology are related to the building of their knowledge representation and to their rigid information retrieval and dialogue capabilities, usually based on simple "pattern matching rules". The analysis of distributional properties of words in a texts corpus allows the creation of semantic spaces where represent and compare natural language elements. This space can be interpreted as a "conceptual" space where the axes represent the latent primitive concepts of the analyzed corpus. The presented work aims at exploiting the properties of a data-driven semantic/conceptual space built using semistructured data sources freely available on the web, like Wikipedia. This coding is equivalent to adding, into the Wikipedia graph, a conceptual similarity relationship layer. The chatbot can exploit this layer in order to simulate an "intuitive" behavior, attempting to retrieve semantic relations between Wikipedia resources also through associative sub-symbolic paths. textcopyright 2009 IEEE.
2008
Augello, Agnese; Saccone, Gaetano; Gaglio, Salvatore; Pilato, Giovanni
Humorist Bot: Bringing Computational Humour in a Chat-Bot System Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings - CISIS 2008: 2nd International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems, pp. 703–708, 2008, ISBN: 0-7695-3109-1 978-0-7695-3109-0.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Computational Humour, Conversational Agents
@inproceedings{augelloHumoristBotBringing2008,
title = {Humorist Bot: Bringing Computational Humour in a Chat-Bot System},
author = { Agnese Augello and Gaetano Saccone and Salvatore Gaglio and Giovanni Pilato},
doi = {10.1109/CISIS.2008.117},
isbn = {0-7695-3109-1 978-0-7695-3109-0},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings - CISIS 2008: 2nd International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems},
pages = {703--708},
abstract = {A conversational agent, capable to have a "sense of humour" is presented. The agent can both generate humorous sentences and recognize humoristic expressions introduced by the user during the dialogue. HumoristBot makes use of well founded techniques of computational humor and it has been implemented using the ALICE framework embedded into an Yahoo! Messenger client. It includes also an avatar that changes the face expression according to humoristic content of the dialogue. textcopyright 2008 IEEE.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Computational Humour, Conversational Agents},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
A conversational agent, capable to have a "sense of humour" is presented. The agent can both generate humorous sentences and recognize humoristic expressions introduced by the user during the dialogue. HumoristBot makes use of well founded techniques of computational humor and it has been implemented using the ALICE framework embedded into an Yahoo! Messenger client. It includes also an avatar that changes the face expression according to humoristic content of the dialogue. textcopyright 2008 IEEE.
Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore
EHeBby: An Evocative Humorist Chat-Bot Journal Article
In: Mobile Information Systems, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 165–181, 2008, ISSN: 1574017X.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Computational Humour, Conversational Agents
@article{pilatoEHeBbyEvocativeHumorist2008,
title = {EHeBby: An Evocative Humorist Chat-Bot},
author = { Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1155/2008/312319},
issn = {1574017X},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
journal = {Mobile Information Systems},
volume = {4},
number = {3},
pages = {165--181},
abstract = {A conversational agent, capable to have a "sense of humor" is presented. The agent can both generate humorous sentences and recognize humoristic expressions introduced by the user during the dialogue. EHeBby is an entertainment oriented conversational agent implemented using the ALICE framework embedded into an Yahoo! Messenger client. It is characterized by two areas: a rational, rule-based area and an evocative area. The first one is based on well founded techniques of computational humor and a standard AIML KB. The second one is based on a conceptual space, automatically induced by a corpus of funny documents, where KB items and user sentences are mapped. This area emulates an associative/evocative behavior of the conversational agent, making her more attractive. EHeBby includes also an avatar that changes the face expression according to humoristic content of the dialogue. textcopyright 2008 - IOS Press and the authors.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Computational Humour, Conversational Agents},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
A conversational agent, capable to have a "sense of humor" is presented. The agent can both generate humorous sentences and recognize humoristic expressions introduced by the user during the dialogue. EHeBby is an entertainment oriented conversational agent implemented using the ALICE framework embedded into an Yahoo! Messenger client. It is characterized by two areas: a rational, rule-based area and an evocative area. The first one is based on well founded techniques of computational humor and a standard AIML KB. The second one is based on a conceptual space, automatically induced by a corpus of funny documents, where KB items and user sentences are mapped. This area emulates an associative/evocative behavior of the conversational agent, making her more attractive. EHeBby includes also an avatar that changes the face expression according to humoristic content of the dialogue. textcopyright 2008 - IOS Press and the authors.
Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore
Sub-Symbolic Knowledge Representation for Evocative Chat-Bots Book
Physica-Verlag HD, 2008, ISBN: 978-3-7908-2009-6.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis
@book{pilatoSubsymbolicKnowledgeRepresentation2008,
title = {Sub-Symbolic Knowledge Representation for Evocative Chat-Bots},
author = { Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-7908-2010-2_42},
isbn = {978-3-7908-2009-6},
year = {2008},
date = {2008-01-01},
publisher = {Physica-Verlag HD},
abstract = {A sub-symbolic knowledge representation oriented to the enhancement of chat bot interaction is proposed. The result of the technique is the introduction of a semantic sub-symbolic layer to a traditional ontology-based knowledge representation. This layer is obtained mapping the ontology concepts into a semantic space built through Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) technique and it is embedded into a conversational agent. This choice leads to a chat-bot with evocative capabilities whose knowledge representation framework is composed of two areas: the rational and the evocative one. As a standard ontology we have chosen the well-founded WordNet lexical dictionary, while as chat-bot the ALICE architecture. Experimental trials involving four lexical categories of WordNet have been conducted, and an example of interaction is shown at the end of the paper. textcopyright 2008 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
A sub-symbolic knowledge representation oriented to the enhancement of chat bot interaction is proposed. The result of the technique is the introduction of a semantic sub-symbolic layer to a traditional ontology-based knowledge representation. This layer is obtained mapping the ontology concepts into a semantic space built through Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) technique and it is embedded into a conversational agent. This choice leads to a chat-bot with evocative capabilities whose knowledge representation framework is composed of two areas: the rational and the evocative one. As a standard ontology we have chosen the well-founded WordNet lexical dictionary, while as chat-bot the ALICE architecture. Experimental trials involving four lexical categories of WordNet have been conducted, and an example of interaction is shown at the end of the paper. textcopyright 2008 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg.
2007
Pilato, Giovanni; Augello, Agnese; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore
Sub-Symbolic Semantic Layer in Cyc for Intuitive Chat-Bots Proceedings Article
In: ICSC 2007 International Conference on Semantic Computing, pp. 121–128, 2007, ISBN: 0-7695-2997-6 978-0-7695-2997-4.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Common Sense Reasoning, Conversational Agents, Cyc Ontology, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis, Ontologies, Semantic Computing, Semantic Spaces
@inproceedings{pilatoSubsymbolicSemanticLayer2007,
title = {Sub-Symbolic Semantic Layer in Cyc for Intuitive Chat-Bots},
author = { Giovanni Pilato and Agnese Augello and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1109/ICSC.2007.37},
isbn = {0-7695-2997-6 978-0-7695-2997-4},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-01},
booktitle = {ICSC 2007 International Conference on Semantic Computing},
pages = {121--128},
abstract = {The work presented in this paper aims to combine Latent Semantic Analysis methodology, common sense and traditional knowledge representation in order to improve the dialogue capabilities of a conversational agent. In our approach the agent brain is characterized by two areas: a "rational area", composed by a structured, rule-based knowledge base, and an "associative area", obtained through a data-driven semantic space. Concepts are mapped in this space and their mutual geometric distance is related to their conceptual similarity. The geometric distance between concepts implicitly defines a sub-symbolic relationship net, which can be seen as a new "subsymbolic semantic layer" automatically added to the Cyc ontology. Users queries can also be mapped in the same conceptual space, and evoke similar ontology concepts. As a result the agent can exploit this feature, attempting to retrieve ontological concepts that are not easily reachable by means of the traditional ontology reasoning engine. textcopyright 2007 IEEE.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Common Sense Reasoning, Conversational Agents, Cyc Ontology, Knowledge Representation, Latent Semantic Analysis, Ontologies, Semantic Computing, Semantic Spaces},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The work presented in this paper aims to combine Latent Semantic Analysis methodology, common sense and traditional knowledge representation in order to improve the dialogue capabilities of a conversational agent. In our approach the agent brain is characterized by two areas: a "rational area", composed by a structured, rule-based knowledge base, and an "associative area", obtained through a data-driven semantic space. Concepts are mapped in this space and their mutual geometric distance is related to their conceptual similarity. The geometric distance between concepts implicitly defines a sub-symbolic relationship net, which can be seen as a new "subsymbolic semantic layer" automatically added to the Cyc ontology. Users queries can also be mapped in the same conceptual space, and evoke similar ontology concepts. As a result the agent can exploit this feature, attempting to retrieve ontological concepts that are not easily reachable by means of the traditional ontology reasoning engine. textcopyright 2007 IEEE.
Santangelo, Antonella; Augello, Agnese; Sorce, Salvatore; Pilato, Giovanni; Gentile, Antonio; Genco, Alessandro; Gaglio, Salvatore
A Virtual Shopper Customer Assistant in Pervasive Environments Journal Article
In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 4805 LNCS, no. PART 1, pp. 447–456, 2007, ISSN: 03029743.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Chatbots, Human computer interaction, Knowledge Representation, Multimodal Interaction, Pervasive Systems
@article{santangeloVirtualShopperCustomer2007,
title = {A Virtual Shopper Customer Assistant in Pervasive Environments},
author = { Antonella Santangelo and Agnese Augello and Salvatore Sorce and Giovanni Pilato and Antonio Gentile and Alessandro Genco and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-76888-3_67},
issn = {03029743},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-01},
journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)},
volume = {4805 LNCS},
number = {PART 1},
pages = {447--456},
abstract = {In this work we propose a smart, human-like PDA-based personal shopper assistant. The system is able to understand the user needs through a spoken natural language interaction and then stores the preferences of the potential customer. Subsequently the personal shopper suggests the most suitable items and shops that match the user profile. The interaction is given by automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies; localization is allowed by the use of Wireless technologies, while the interaction is performed by an Alice-based chat-bot endowed with reasoning capabilities. Besides, being implemented on a PDA, the personal shopper satisfies the user needs of mobility and it is also usable on different mobile devices. textcopyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.},
keywords = {Chatbots, Human computer interaction, Knowledge Representation, Multimodal Interaction, Pervasive Systems},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this work we propose a smart, human-like PDA-based personal shopper assistant. The system is able to understand the user needs through a spoken natural language interaction and then stores the preferences of the potential customer. Subsequently the personal shopper suggests the most suitable items and shops that match the user profile. The interaction is given by automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies; localization is allowed by the use of Wireless technologies, while the interaction is performed by an Alice-based chat-bot endowed with reasoning capabilities. Besides, being implemented on a PDA, the personal shopper satisfies the user needs of mobility and it is also usable on different mobile devices. textcopyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.
2005
Agostaro, Francesco; Augello, Agnese; Pilato, Giovanni; Vassallo, Giorgio; Gaglio, Salvatore
A Conversational Agent Based on a Conceptual Interpretation of a Data Driven Semantic Space Journal Article
In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 3673 LNAI, pp. 381–392, 2005, ISSN: 03029743.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Semantic Spaces
@article{agostaroConversationalAgentBased2005,
title = {A Conversational Agent Based on a Conceptual Interpretation of a Data Driven Semantic Space},
author = { Francesco Agostaro and Agnese Augello and Giovanni Pilato and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Gaglio},
doi = {10.1007/11558590_39},
issn = {03029743},
year = {2005},
date = {2005-01-01},
journal = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)},
volume = {3673 LNAI},
pages = {381--392},
abstract = {In this work we propose an interpretation of the LSA framework which leads to a data-driven "conceptual" space creation suitable for an "intuitive" conversational agent. The proposed approach allows overcoming the limitations of traditional, rule-based, chat-bots, leading to a more natural dialogue. textcopyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.},
keywords = {Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Conversational Agents, Semantic Spaces},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
In this work we propose an interpretation of the LSA framework which leads to a data-driven "conceptual" space creation suitable for an "intuitive" conversational agent. The proposed approach allows overcoming the limitations of traditional, rule-based, chat-bots, leading to a more natural dialogue. textcopyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.